Cincinnati Financial (CINF+0.3%) is slightly ahead of pace in its goal of hitting $5B in premium volume by the end of 2015, says CEO Steve Johnston, presenting at the KBW conference (transcript) (presentation slides).

Talking about the investment side of the business, CFO MIke Sewell notes CINF is somewhat more aggressive than competitors, with 31% of the portfolio in stocks vs. an 18% industry average. The resultant yield on invested assets for Cincinnati in 2012 was 4.39% vs. 4.02% for the industry. While this has declined 36 bps to 4.03% for CINF this year, it has fallen 54 bps for the industry to 3.48%.

Rising interest rates took no bite out of book value as a 3.6% decline in book from lower bond prices was offset by a 5.6% increase from the stock portfolio.

Is it something more than interest rates at work? Selloffs earlier this summer were notable for exempting certain sectors set to benefit from higher rates - insurance (KIE-1.4%) and regional banks (KRE-1.1%) - but not today.